WFP Trucks Come To The Rescue In Storm-Battered Haiti

A fleet of trucks, donated by the Norwegian Red Cross to WFP Haiti, delivered food and humanitarian supplies to Haitians battered by hurricanes in 2008 – and are poised to come to the rescue again during this hurricane season.

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- When a series of hurricanes battered this impoverished Caribbean island nation last year, thousands of people were left stranded as threadbare roads melted into rivers and a wall of water swept over the northern city of Gonaives.

The natural disaster could have taken on far more drastic dimensions – but for a fleet of M621 trucks, 6x6 all-terrain that hauled nearly 6,400 metric tons of food, tents, health kits and other critical supplies to a desperate population in the first seven months of the humanitarian response.

As Haiti braces for more storms this hurricane season – which officially began in June and ends in late November – some 63 WFP trucks are again ready for action. Some of them are pre-positioned in 4 different areas where accessibility becomes an issue after a hurricane.

Now up and running, the vehicles are small by trucking standards, carrying only four tonnes on the muddy tracks that serve as Haiti’s back roads. But they are flexible and durable, built to endure the most difficult terrain and capable of motoring up to 600 kilometres on jet and heating fuel, as well as diesel.

And when four hurricanes pounded Haiti between August and September 2008, the trucks delivered crucial assistance to many of the 800,000 people affected by the storms. When Haitians began rebuilding, they hauled construction material.

Ready for action

“In Gonaives last year, after the city was flooded, they carried enough construction materials, wood and cement to build 250 houses,” Muller says.